Los Angeles City and County: land subdivision; economic development; daily life

Southern California ranchos

Surveying and civil engineering

Mining and assaying

Background

Alfred Solano (1857-193?) as a child was the ward of the surveyor George Hansen (1824-1897). While still in school, he began
helping the latter, eventually as full partner and heir, in the making of surveys of various tracts in Los Angeles County
and in other parts of Southern California. Hansen, a native of Fiume on the Dalmatian coast in the Austrian Empire, had come
to California around Cape Horn in 1850 to seek gold. Unsuccessful as a prospector, he began work as a surveyor in Los Angeles
in 1853. In 1857, he was elected superintendent of the Los Angeles Vineyard Society of San Francisco, for whom he laid out
the colony of Anaheim. He was also a central figure in the Los Angeles Canal & Reservoir Company and served as Los Angeles
County Surveyor (1864-1869) and Los Angeles City Surveyor (1882). Hansen did the initial surveys of ranchos San Francisquito,
los Felis, Sausal Redondo, and Aguaje de Centinela, divided ranchos la Ballona, la Ciénega, Sausal Redondo, San Pedro, San
Antonio, and la Puente, and subdivided T.2-3S. R.13-14W. S.B.M. After Hansen's death in 1897, his records were left to Solano,
who became a partner of Sidney B. Reeve, also a surveyor, with an office in Los Angeles. Following the death of Reeve, the
material in the office concerning surveys was gathered together by his widow and Solano to form this collection.

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property rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary rights. In some instances,
the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate
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Availability

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